Badiucao was once at an event he never attended. That’s because it wasn’t him, but rather an imposter.
Speaking to PEN America alongside Melissa Chan, Emmy-nominated journalist and co-author of their new graphic novel You Must Take Part in Revolution, Badiucao said he did not know if the imposter was sent by Chinese authorities or someone with a personal vendetta. But he told this story as a reminder of how far powers will go to maintain their versions of the “truth.”
Badiucao and Chan’s new work of fiction, set in a techno-authoritarian future with the U.S. and China at war, has been described as “timely as it is deeply stirring,” as it examines people’s choices in the fight for freedom.
An artist and activist from China, Badiucao built a large online following as a dissident political cartoonist. For seven years, he practiced his art anonymously, covering his face and altering his voice in interviews. After Chinese authorities discovered his identity and began threatening his family, he unmasked.
He told PEN America that revealing his face was his way of saying “art is something I cherish the most, and no force can stop my art practice.” Now living in exile in Australia, Badiucao is still facing serious risks to his safety including threats from Chinese authorities while abroad. All this has not deterred Badiucao.
“I know my role, and I embrace my identity as an artist, which should set no limitation for my expression,” he said, reflecting on the continuation of his work.
Co-author Chan is also no stranger to censorship. In 2012, she was expelled from China while serving as a correspondent for Al Jazeera English’s Beijing bureau, a ruling that forced the broadcaster to shutter its doors in the country. “The tighter the system and the world is for creatives in China, the more important the diaspora becomes. … The role of our project has a different resonance now than it did five years ago,” she said.
The threats both Badiucao and Chan have met represent some of the myriad reprisals writers and artists face in China. Over the last five years, China has topped PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index as the leading jailer of writers worldwide.
At an event with the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center at P&T Knitwear on March 14th, the audience was keen to learn from Badiucao and Chan’s experiences clashing with the state in the name of democracy. “Democracy is not an American brand,” said Badiucao, “It is a common imagination that we can believe in and fight for and [must] sacrifice for it. To defend democracy is to take part in the democracy, to take part in political life as much as you can.”
The book’s title, You Must Take Part in Revolution, is originally a quote from Mao Zedong, and Chan said that part of her hope in writing this graphic novel was “to reclaim the term” from a history of oppression.
When Badiucao and Chan began working on the graphic novel five years ago, they didn’t anticipate the political climate in which the book would be released.
Following recent attacks on free expression in the United States, and a decline in democracy globally, the book has been eerily resonant with audiences. Chan noted the similarities of book censorship in China to book bans in the U.S. “We are being told, as Americans, not to believe our own eyes…I think they have no compunction when they decide to set their sights on the publishing industry in the United States,” she said.
In Badiucao’s words: “There is no escape for any art creation or literature that can avoid being influenced or representing politics. So if that’s the reality then we should embrace it, and make our voice and concern ours, before it’s too late.”
